Crazily enough, Bowman wasn’t asked about that 2016 race during his press conference on Friday.

“Pretty successful here, wish we could close races a little better here,” Bowman said. “We have run really well here in the Xfinity Series and in the Cup Series. Just never been able to close one off.”

Really well is a good summation of that 2016 race; at least until the crash. Bowman ultimately finished sixth but led 194 of the race’s 324 laps. Now the Arizona native is back at the track in the No. 88 that’s all his.

After sitting out the 2017 Cup Series season and serving as Hendrick Motorsports’ test driver, Bowman took over for Earnhardt Jr. following Junior’s retirement.

Bowman is 17th in the standings through the first three races of the season, a spot where he said he doesn’t really want to be.

“It hasn’t been a great start for us,” Bowman said. “I think we unloaded at Atlanta and quickly realized that we have a lot of work to do. We’ve got the best guys in the business back at the shop working hard. We made progress last week. We were definitely better last week. We didn’t get the finish that we would have hoped for, but we are making progress.”